Ribbon customization in a 2003-compatible .dot?

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I have a customer moving (not soon enough) from Word 2003 to 2010. They would like an add-in that is compatible with both versions of Word, and would greatly prefer not having to do a DLL install on each user’s computer — that makes a “global template” the optimal solution.
A .dotm won’t run in 2003, but they’d very much like to have a custom tab on the Ribbon with the custom features I’m adding — without having to use the AddIns tab.

I know this can be accomplished with a VSTO project, but that creates a DLL that must be installed. Can the IRibbonUI interface, specifically the OnLoad functionality, be accomplished solely within a .dot?

Everything beyond that I can handle: a little late binding… some Application.Version checks… and the 2003 versus 2007 differences are trivial. I just can’t get at the IRibbonUI object, so far as I can tell, without creating a VSTO add-in.

Thanks in advance,
Joel

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Joel,

It’s safe to say there’s no way to associate Ribbon customizations with a .dot – the storage structures required for Ribbon customization just don’t exist in a .dot.

Although it would be a pain, maybe you’ll need to maintain two parallel global templates for a while – one for 2003 and one for 2007.

Gary

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If you want a tool that will reduce the pain in dealing with the Ribbon when you’re doing the 2007 version, go to http://leafcreations.org/ and download the Ribbon Editor.

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I would suggest using the existing .DOT template for both versions of Word. But in Word 2010, add a .DOTM template that contains the Ribbon code only. The Ribbon code will call macros from the .DOT template. (You’ll need a small bit of code in the .DOTM template to integrate Word 2010 and the Ribbon.) When the move to Word 2010 is complete, copy the code modules, users forms, etc. from the .DOT template to the .DOTM template.

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